


The Cat with the Flaxen Hair

by neomints



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: ADHD Character, Gen, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Kozume Kenma, both kenma and yachi have it!!, generally just very feel good and soft ;w;, they're also just friends here no romancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-02 10:57:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20274793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neomints/pseuds/neomints
Summary: She walked out along the cemented pavement, relishing in the cool air, and slowly rehearsed her breathing exercises. In for three counts, out for seven. Slowly increase the counts as you go along. She rolled up her tracksuit bottoms to alleviate the overwhelming feeling of cotton against hair against skin, and further tightened her jacket. The mix of pressure and freedom giving way to a slowly blooming sense of comfort.It was only after her fiftieth count that she realized she wasn’t the only one in this part of the site. She caught a glance of two pairs of golden eyes against the dark backdrop of the summer nights, and her brain helpfully supplied images of monsters of old to go with it.---Yachi meets two unlikely friends as she tries to calm her nerves, the three of them bond in their own ways and learn more about each other.





	The Cat with the Flaxen Hair

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first real fic and I'm really excited to share it with everyone!  
I'd like to thank all my new friends for helping me get the courage to post it and for all their kind words, and to thank @bananasloth especially for writing alongside me, giving me the idea for the cat and also helping me proofread a LOT of the mistakes!
> 
> The title is from  'The Girl with the Flaxen Hair' by Claude Debussy , which I'd recommend listening to as you read to really get you into gentle atmosphere of the fic.
> 
> Thank you all again and I hope you enjoy!

It was on a particularly clear night of the training camp that Yachi’s anxiety had started to flare up again.

She’d been doing so well up until then! Not only had she managed to make a few new manager friends but she’d even got the courage to hand Bokuto Koutarou, _Fukuroudani’s ACE_ a bottle of Pocari when he got out for the timeout. Sure he wasn’t even on her team but she was taking it as a personal victory. 

The days had gone by with a lot of sweat (which was to be expected), blood (on one occasion of Hinata getting much too excited), tears (Yachi’s own personal contribution to the mix), and the usual fanfare of dozens of teenaged athletes in a semi-confined space. Yet it was only that night that Yachi had finally been incapable of keeping up.

She walked out along the cemented pavement, relishing in the cool air, and slowly rehearsed her breathing exercises. In for three counts, out for seven. Slowly increase the counts as you go along. She rolled up her tracksuit bottoms to alleviate the overwhelming feeling of cotton against hair against skin, and further tightened her jacket. The mix of pressure and freedom giving way to a slowly blooming sense of comfort.

It was only after her fiftieth count that she realized she wasn’t the only one in this part of the site. She caught a glance of two pairs of golden eyes against the dark backdrop of the summer nights, and her brain helpfully supplied images of monsters of old to go with it. 

A bakeneko? Two bakeneko?? Was she going to be whisked away and eaten alive?! Or was it that she was going to be turned into a demon herself?

Yachi’s comfort fled like a deer under fifteen different headlights. Her body simultaneously froze and shook in unbridled fear, and her voice migrated to a different part of the country. In her momentary panic surrounding her immediate demise one of the two pairs of eyes looked away, the other remained trained on her, blinking slowly.

“Um... Are you.. Okay?” The demon, whose voice didn’t really sound like a demon’s said. 

“P-PLEASE HAVE MERCY ON ME!” Yachi dropped to her knees, her body taking a begging posture of its own accord, her forehead both burning and freezing from the feeling of sweat and skin against concrete. “Please don’t turn my flesh into miso soup and serve me to your monster friends!!! I promise I’m not very tasty and I wouldn’t even make a good demon anyway!! A-ah but if the only way I’d be let free is by turning into one then I don’t think I could do this to other people I mean I know it’s what demons are supposed to do but I can’t even talk to people let alone whisk their souls away into other dimensions and, and, and-”

Before she could come up with a will or at the very least more effective last words the demon, whose voice was gentle and slightly familiar, made a noise. Yachi’s body stilled so much it almost felt like even the atoms in her body had stopped vibrating; was this really how mankind discovered zero Kelvin..? At least Yachi would be part of such an incredible discovery. Not that she’d be alive to accept her nobel peace prize of course. 

It took Yachi so long to tear her train of thought away from how she could possibly accept a prize when her body was in a state of permafrost, that by the time she realized what the sound the demon had made was, it was already quiet again. The sound wasn’t that of a tongue sliding against lips in anticipation of a meal, Yachi began to think, neither was it the growl of a hungry and empty demon stomach. In fact it sounded a lot more like-

“Pffft… Hehehe...” The demon was _giggling_.

It was after a quick glance upwards that Yachi realized that it wasn’t a demon at all.

Golden eyes came into focus, and with them a curtain of golden hair. The human, as Yachi could now see, was actually someone she was already acquainted with!

“K-Kozume-san..?” Yachi piped up, her face starting to take on a redder hue.

“Just Kenma is fine.” Kozume-san’s - or er, Kenma-san? - Kenma-san’s hand was on their mouth, shielding their expression from Yachi’s view. Even so Yachi could still see the squint in their eyes, a clear indication of a smile.

Yachi collapsed onto the concrete in relief, her body in a much more relaxed pose, and the tears in her eyes only threatening to spill rather than dripping onto her cheeks. Kenma-san followed her lead and went to sit on the patch of grass growing adjacent to the gym building where they were crouched, their back sliding against the rough material of the wall.

They were only halfway down to the comfort of the earth when Yachi yelped. Kenma-san jumped, bracing themselves against the wall. Yachi was in turmoil, not only had she just embarrassed herself in front of a _different team’s setter_, mistook her _senpai_ for a _demon_, _and_ completely forgotten to apologize, she’d done so in front of Hinata’s _best friend_. In other words she’d just degraded her _own_ best friend’s best friend. Her best friend in law. 

Yachi was going to die.

She began to blubber, tears heavy against her lips, “I’M SO SORRY I-”

Kenma-san huffed and gave her a look. “Don’t,” they said, simply.

Yachi looked at them in silence, her eyes wide. It’s strange how just one word could completely stop her train of thought.

“It was funny so.. Don’t worry about it, I guess?” They continued, hair shielding their golden eyes from view.

“Oh.. um, okay.” Yachi replied, dumbly.

“Hm.” Kenma-san gave back in response.

The two of them sat there quietly. At first it was a bit strange but the two managed to fall into a comfortable silence. Yachi began to count her breaths again. The cool feeling of the grass beneath her exposed legs calmed her, and the pressure from the concrete on her back was helping. Strangely enough she felt even better than when she’d come out here in the first place. 

She glanced over at the strange setter beside her. They weren’t looking at her, but instead were staring towards one end of the gym. Curiously, Yachi sat up to try and see what it was that interested them so much. She was quickly rewarded with the sight of two more golden eyes in the distance, watching them intently. Yachi noted that they were the same eyes she’d seen when she first ran into Kenma-san.

This time however, she saw soft-looking golden fur surrounding the eyes. It was a cat! A real one this time, not the setter-who-acts-like-one kind!

Kenma-san was looking fondly at the cat, a gentle smile forgotten on their lips. Slowly they began to reach towards the cat, tapping the concrete at their feet. The cat’s attention was grabbed and it slowly began to walk towards the blonde duo.

Yachi gasped as it approached, and no faster than the sound had left her mouth had the cat sprinted back to the corner it was approaching from.

She clasped her hands over her mouth, her face reddening again.

“I-I’m-!” She began, guilt clear on the features that weren’t covered by her shaking hands.

“Shh..” Kenma-san replied, a finger against their lips.

The action worked like a charm, and Yachi nodded quietly. It wasn’t long until the cat had continued its trek towards them again, its eyes firmly trained onto Yachi’s form. Soon enough it had found respite in Kenma-sans lap, nuzzling their hand gently.

“Some cats get scared easily,” They whispered, looking at the creature fondly, “So you have to be careful. But um, with enough time... even the most cowardly cats will be your friend.” 

Kenma-san’s gaze slowly moved between the cat and Yachi. They didn’t quite look Yachi in the eye, and yet she’d never felt like she’d ever been stared into so deeply. Kenma-san had found a window into Yachi’s soul, and they didn’t even need her eyes to do so.

They went back to stroking the cat, their words nothing but the ghost of a memory, lost to the wind. Yachi found herself looking at the setter closely. It’s strange, she thought, how they always looked so small. On the bench, and in games, and even right then.

Yet something about what they had said was big. It was nothing short of cosmic in scope. 

Simple words for simple ideas. Simple thoughts for simple feelings. Simple meetings for simple friendships.

And simple moments, she realized, for anything but simple realizations.

“Can I pet it?” Yachi said, her voice soft against the weight of her present.

“Mhm..” Kenma responded, their words as fragile in Yachi’s hands as the bundle in their arms, “Slowly, put your hand near it and let it sniff you. That’ll tell it you don’t want to hurt it.”

Yachi nodded and hummed an affirmative. She moved closer to Kenma-san, slowly, until she was only a few feet away. She let her hand trail in front of the cat’s nose and held her breath. (In for three counts.) The cat sniffed her hand, the air feather-light against her knuckles, it brushed it’s head against Yachi’s hand. (Out for seven.) Her fingers trailed along the gentle feeling of skin against fur against skin. Her heart tightened against her chest. (The mix of pressure and proximity giving way to a slowly blooming sense of comfort).

It was not long after, that she and Kenma-san were sitting against one another, the bundle of warmth laying between them as though it had brought its own sunlight with it.

“Kenma-san,” She started, tilting her head towards her companion.

“I said just Kenma is fine..” they responded. Their body didn’t move. This position must’ve been the most comfortable of all from what Yachi could tell, judging by the palm stretched against the wall, and the feet placed facing one another. Her own hand was holding her jacket tight, and her own feet were digging into the grass beneath them after all.

“Sorry,” she said, her stutter forgotten in favour of sudden familiarity, “I was just wondering why you’re out here right now? Um, everyone else is still training so…” Her eyes wandered around the scenery. She thought of adding a quick ‘Um, if it’s okay to ask!!’ or even a ‘You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to!!!’, but something about the warmth of the moment stopped her.

Kenma-san stilled, their fingers tangled in their new feline friend’s fur. After a moment they responded, with what Yachi could tell was surprising honesty. 

“I was overwhelmed.”

The words were simple, to the point. Their bluntness betrayed a simple fact: Kenma-san had felt the same way Yachi had only a few minutes ago. Not only that but they had told Yachi, and the weight of the confession wasn’t lost upon her.

_“Some cats get scared easily,”_ they’d said, _“So you have to be careful-”_

“-But with enough time... anyone will be your friend...” 

Kenma-san huffed, the sound warm and joyful. 

When Yachi had realized she’d repeated their words out loud, her ears began to warm. But smiles are infectious it seems, for the air around them had quickly given way to laughter, and a long relaxed meow.

The two of them leaned into one another, a friendship formed from familiar troubles giving way to proximity. Yachi’s cheek found home against a thin shoulder and her new friend slowly rested their head upon her own. The feeling of warm thick hair against her own soft strands and the pressure from their arms pressed together became as grounding as it was freeing. Her breaths turned deep and relaxed, ruffling the sleeping creature between them.

Yachi smiled and looked at the sky above. It was a particularly clear night and she could see the stars like she’d never seen them before.

The ones in the sky, and the ones in her soul.


End file.
